“Can I go with you?” or “I’ll carry your bags” is a refrain I often hear when someone learns I’m going to Italy for work. Traveling to Italy to buy terracotta pottery for our store sounds like a pretty good job, and it is when you don’t have to do it every other month.  It’s not that I don’t love the time in Italy, but it takes a day to get there and a day to get back.  Remember, I’m not flying on Air Force One, I’m flying coach.

I don’t have a bag for you to carry because I’ve figured out how to travel in Europe for a month or more with just the bag on my back. I take the same train, rent the same car, eat at—well here is where it can get interesting—after a long day going from terracotta pottery factory to terracotta pottery factory, I usually can find a great place to dine and a gelato shop with an excellent scoop. This is a consolation to twenty years of hanging out in terracotta factories and spending the rest of the time driving, don’t you think?

I am usually traveling in the winter, but this time I had (yes that’s “had”) to go in April. Spring had really sprung and Tuscany was in full bloom, trees had leaves and people were not in big fat coats. I wore a T-shirt every day. What a difference a few months can make.

Another difference was that on this trip, I didn’t go to buy terracotta pots, I went to buy garden antiques. I’ve been trying for three years to get this old guy to sell his collection of old, very old farm troughs, stones, millstones and wagons. I spent three days loading two containers and then two more days visiting manufacturers, back to Rome, back on the plane (in coach) and back to work selling pottery.

Somebody has to do it!

True to my “Profile” I do wander the globe looking, sometimes under rocks.  Here at Eye of the Day we have been successful in offering old rocks with a purpose for the garden.

Throughout the centuries, agricultural societies shaped stone to hold water and fodder, fodder and water, to sustain their livestock. These pieces make stellar planters and add mass and dimension to a landscape in many ways. Here at EOD we make them into beautiful container gardens, water plant containers, border containers and fountains.

Yes, they are heavy and we have become pretty good at delivering and installing them, but that isn’t the story I want to tell here. The story is where to go to find these old and handmade things.

Where is there lots and lots of granite to hand pitch? The Andes, Peru, Machu Picchu.

Discovering Lima, Peru:

Busy and booming, this place where it never, and I mean never, rains is beyond bustling.  It reminds me of China with cars and buses everywhere so that if you’re not paying attention, you just might get run over.  There is smog, but being on the ocean, there is some relief.  Also, it’s a good idea to go in late November. Wait, that’s Summer. Or is it Winter there? T-shirts, sandals and shorts.

The city is spread out and the different districts make it fun and interesting to explore. The Baranca is funky, hip, and has a great flavor to it.

 

The M district, where everyone tells you to stay (I agree), is where the action is and the shopping and the best food. The food is fantastic, really. Ceviches galore and Pulpo,  the flavors and the talent of the cooks, chefs and kitchens is world class. The opportunities to walk and tour the city and sample their great restaurants are abundant.

Getting out of the City

But unless you are looking for crafts to purchase, especially things woven and crocheted from alpaca and sheep, or silverware all on a scale relative to grains of sand at the beach, you will be disappointed. So, I headed to the mountains of Cusco, something like 10,000 feet above sea level. This city is different in every way from Lima except for the woven and knitted goods.

Cusco is a small but bustling city with sights galore and outstanding food. The streets are still mostly made of granite cobblestone and strong ankles are recommended.  Let me say here that the coca tea is a good idea and tastes great, it helps with the altitude but it is not the experience many think it will be or maybe even want. I didn’t, however, chew any leaves, it just didn’t strike me as important. I was hunting for rocks!

If you could turn granite into energy, the Peruvians would be the wealthiest people on the planet.  How did the Incas move the boulders (some a hundred tons or more), not only downhill but, down mountain slopes, across large rivers and up mountain slopes hundreds and hundreds of feet into place, and when fitted together you could not slide an eyelash between them?

The ever present granite mountains granite buildings, granite temples and, granite streets are enough to cause a need in the hardened soul for some loamy soil and terracotta planters (that’s EOD humor, by the way). I was certain that I would come across some troughs or stones carved to hold water for thirsty beasts kept for their wool and hair.

Sadly, I canvassed from car, bus and train windows and never saw anything until we were on our way to Puno and we stopped at the most outrageous church I’ve ever seen. There I saw two old stones, definitely carved to hold water. Unfortunately, they were over two thousand years old and I could never have afforded them, at least for use as planters.  Oh well! Not every expedition is successful from the EOD point of view. Nor does it have to be, even for me, but I was surprised that in a country made of stone, so little of it has found  its way into the culture.

Oh well, on to the next spot!